Small Reach Regatta 2011!

Hello Intrepid Readers!  Me, myself, and I, along with my wife and my Goat Island Skiff have just returned from a long weekend at Lamoine State Park in Down East Maine, just across Frenchman Bay from Acadia National Park!

Not only was the location spectacular, but we sailed in company with dozens upon dozens of other small sail and oar boats!  Yes Reader, I can feel the perspiration on your brow already, for I am referring to the legendary Small Reach Regatta!  WOOT WOOT!

Due to constraints on my end I made it to Lamoine on Thursday morning as opposed to Wednesday night so I missed the meet+greet, but that's OK.  I enjoyed three days of sailing and camping and am already looking forward to the next SRR.

Remember:  You can click on any picture and then enlarge it to get a bigger one if you want bigger pictures.  I can also email you the original huge pictures if you would like a copy.  Just leave a comment and we'll get in touch.

Day One:  Lamoine State Park to Bean Island.  Winds were light.  I was the last boat off the beach and made good time but made a strategic error and stayed out to sea in hopes of better airs.  There was some venturi effect around the last point (Hancock Pt) and I was promptly passed by several of my peers as they blasted around the point.  Oh well!  We got to the backside of Bean Island, beached, and ate lunch!

This is the SRR:

The beach.  Find the Goat!

Goat Island Skiff surrounded by awesome.

Some Caledonia Yawls on the left and a Pacific Pelican on the right!

After lunch I meandered around the island and relaxed, and was one of the last sailboats off the island.  I didn't feel like rushing, but watched some of the fleet head out.

Oughtred JII (2)

A Superseed which supersedes the Melonseed.

Free Parking for Intrepid Reader of the Month if you can tell me where we saw this one before...

 Then I busted off of Bean Island and did a circumnavigation only to get becalmed on the way back.  No big deal.  A little bit of rowing and I made it to some wind and we were off again!

Clint Chase Boatbuilder and Better Half in Drake with downwind sailing rig up

CCBB and Co.  Notice patriotism.

Just awesome.  

Day Two was a sail down to some geological formations called the "Ovens" which are caves in the cliffs.  Allison and I ventured down to see and promptly ended up getting sucked into an oven, which meant down came the sail and out came the oars, toute suite.  Afterwards, a spirited upwind slog to Thomas Island for lunch!

More Awesome. A Don Kurylko Myst.

Fog rolling in over Frenchman Bay

Hooray Lunch!  Pathfinder, center.

The Fleet.

Goat Island Skiff heading back.  Me.  So I get a big picture. (Photo by Steven B)

Goat Island Skiff back at Lamoine on the Beach.  Acadia in background.  YEAH!

Day Three was an upwind slog up the Skillings River.  The final destination was going to be a small cove all the way up at the top.  It was a double whammy, we had the current with us initially but it turned about half-way up for us.  Allison and I doubled down and made it happen, slipping into the cove, rafting up with some others, stuffing PB+J into our mouths before setting back down river before we got caught in the mud.

On the way upriver, there was one portion of the fleet ahead of us, a small pack of three, and everyone else behind us.

Acadia in the clouds with the rest of the fleet behind us.

The pack of three consisted of a Coquina, a Core Sound 17, and our Goat Island Skiff.  The three of us tacked and tacked all on top of each other but keeping company, until the skipper of the Coquina decided to use the traveler on his rig, and he just blasted out of there.  I mean, he took off. 

Coquina

Coquina Again

So gorgeous.  This is about where she took off once the Skipper started using the traveler.  BOOM!  Gone.

That left us and Joe, who was skippering his son's Core Sound 17, which was a High School project.  Note cannibalized sails off other boats.  Love it!  The slog was a slog, but made bearable with the Coquina and Joe to share most of it with.

CS17 and Joe

Joe is a 4 realz Pirate!

Our constant shadow.

Up at the top of the river, we rafted up!

To my Port.

To my Starboard

The way back was better.  Current and wind at our backs we speedily made it out of the river and back to Lamoine where we frolicked some more with the good wind and rapidly clearing skies.

Goat Island Skiff heading downriver. (photo by Steven B)

Heading downriver.  The boom is a little high the downhaul slipped forward.  This was rectified. (Photo by Steven B)

Crotch Island Pinky-- A Dutch family borrowed this from The Apprenticeshop and proceeded to sailed the Living Baloney out of it!  So awesome!

Acadia and the fleet that didn't make it ahead of us now.

The Author of this blog

Superseed that supersedes the Melonseed with Acadia

The Fleet is spreading out

Sea Pearl Scout

Dragging my fingertips in the water hiking out like a hero.

Well, it was an awesome weekend, for sure!  I can't wait to get back next year and do some more sailing with other boats!  I sail alone all the time, and for one weekend, I can sail in a huge fleet of sail and oar boats and dominate the waves!

Crotch Island Pinky at sunset

Sunset over the harbor.

For some more incidental pictures, and the ones above, please see my album with my entire collection.

Until next time Intrepid Readers!

Isles of Shoals again!

Another blast out to Isles of Shoals for my Goat Island Skiff!

The intrepid reader will remember last year's trip.  That trip was C-R-A-Z-Y with a roaring tailwind J-Pirate and myself hung on for dear life and made it the Isles in about an hour, and that included non-direct route a pansy-jibe (the 270 deg. tack).  The way back was 3 hours in pounding waves.  I went a second time with L-Man, and it took 3 hrs to get out there in fickle winds and a strong current, and about 1.5 hrs back.

Well, the other day L-Man and myself went out there in about 1.5hrs!  He felt better about all this Isles of Shoals stuff.  Epic snorkeling ensued.  The water was amazing.

I put two similar pictures because the water color was so awesome.  L-Man took some video!  Effing right, youTubes videos, Amateur Style continues to push the edges of technology!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxR2ppWVHV0

You have to click on the link because I couldn't embed it.

The way back.... L-Man not so happy.  With a screwed up current and strong winds from the same direction, FOUR HOURS to get back to the harbor with a stint of slow rowing.  Dismal, after a while.  I would like, for once to get there and back without some long slog.  SIGH  So beautiful, but we pay the price.

Mystic Seaport/WoodenBoat Show Pt. 1

Avast ye intrepid readers!

I just spent the past weekend at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut helping Clint Chase Boatbuilder assemble three Echo Bay Dory Skiffs for a Family Boatbuilding event at the 20th annual WoodenBoat Magazine Boat Show!  It was a great event, lots of great boats, lots of great people, and despite some threatening moments, great weather.  I had a fantastic time, it was not only a good learning opportunity, it was also a boat droolfest.

Let's start somewhere important and logical: Paul from Connecticut's beautifully finished Goat Island Skiff!  Baloney, I forget the name... Elizabeth Anne?  Maybe Paul can chime and remind me.  ***KATHLEEN MARIE*** thanks to Dave in NJ!  Anyway, beautiful varnish work with a jet-black exterior.  This is the real deal.  The boat is ready to row, and Paul is still working on the spars, but to say the boat is striking is an understatement!  Nice job Paul!

This was not the only Goat Island Skiff in attendance, Clint Chase Boatbuilder's perpetually unfinished Goat was also on display, near our Family Boatbuilding tent.  (I'd like to make it clear that this is Clint's personal Goat, unfinished as he is quite busy on his business end and customers take priority!)  These two boat generated significant interest from spectators, and there were enough Mik Storer aficionados on hand to answer questions and get people stoked.  The Goat Island Skiff is entering the sailing world's consciousness.  I love it.  I love it.   Preach it!

In a similar vein to the Goat Island Skiff I found this sharpie (trying to figure out what kind of sharpie it is, ideas?  Mik told me, I forgot)  wedged between two buildings.  

Plumb bow, hard chine, flat bottom, and a massive centerboard.  Massive.  Mik Storer had some great things to say about huge centerboards and how many have strayed to small boards because "there's some crazy number floating on the internet on how big a centerboard needs to be and it's completely wrong."  Beautiful boat.

Some others...

Trem, 1/3 copy of Joseph Conrad's Tremolino

Drool Catboats....

Dipping lug long boat

My rudder stock is lacking, in comparison.  I need some protective demons!

WOWZER

And now a little bit of a departure from sailing boats... this little steam powered launch was a heart-string-puller without a doubt:

The best part of this launch is that it's SILENT.  Steam is silent.  Silence is beautiful.  It could look like a turd, and if it's silent I would love it.

Below is B & B Yacht Design's Amanda/Mandy which was a cutie and another crowd pleaser.  It had a great solution to keeping the board down, the bungee through a piece of rubber hose, and it worked well.  I'm always looking for good ways to keep my board down and this looks like a very viable solution.

Finally, no visit to Mystic Seaport is complete with checking out the Charles W Morgan, America's last wooden Whaling Ship.  She's on the hard for a real restoration, and she blocks out the sky.  I haven't seen her in years.

Wall of Wood

Mystic Seaport from the Morgan

And finally most importantly, most epic-ly, I present the defining moment of the Show.  Intrepid readers, I present to you your Intrepid Author-Hero and Michael Storer mugging for the paparazzi (my arm). HUZZAH!

Hero and Genius in one frame-- Goat Island Skiff Proud

Oh yeah! There was obviously much much more to the show, this is but a small representation.  Part 2 to follow with Family Boatbuilding!

Sailing/Camping Season Begins! Squam Lake.

AHOY Intrepid reader!

I Am Zinea, Pterodactylus has risen again and spread her canvas-y wing(s) and sailed forth inaugurating a new summer of adventure!  Over the past weekend my trusty Goat Island Skiff and my lovely wife sallied forth under dark skies and sheets of downpouring rain in the company of Peteloaf, his spouse, and his Eureka Canoe.  Our destination was Bowman Island in Squam Lake where we intended to stay the weekend in quiet repose on these silky waters of this most beautiful of New Hampshire lakes.

The weather was beyond crappy, but that did not deter our heroes, whose hearts are made of Granite and whose souls sing the songs of silent years past, when Men were Men and the Rain trembled to hear our names whispered on the wind!

Anchors Aweigh!

The Group minus the Author with TWO Storer Boats adventuring!

An O'Day Daysailor joined us as well-- two sailboats are better!

Goat, Flag, Loon... America is this.

I am a hero.  Subtract points for fender.

A quiet moment, I can add repetitive pictures all I want.

I am going to sum this trip up in a few sentences:  It rained.  I almost ran aground at high speed but saw the rocks loom out of the murky depths (actually the water is crystal clear) and hoisted the board up just in the nick of time.  The Squam Lakes Association does not staff their building on weekends apparently, so I didn't get a chart of the notoriously rocky waters.  It rained some more.  There was some more rain.  I got bit by a dog.  We brought lots of food and burned lots of wood.  There was some mist, and before we knew it, we were heading back home!

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In other Goat Island Skiff news:

I have glassed the front end of my Goat with 4oz cloth.  I wish I did this last year.  If you look at the picture in full size, you'll notice lots of white dots.  That is where rocks pounded the veneers inward and the paint from the bottom is in the well.  The dark areas in the plywood are water intrusion which occurred before I could get epoxy in them to seal them up.  My bow skid (not in plans) took some huge hits last year.  IF I could do it over I would have widened the two main skids (which are installed to plans on my GIS) widen them outwards just a bit and carried them much more forward, eliminated the bow skid, and made sure the first 3 feet of the boat had 4oz cloth for abrasion resistance.  This area gets abused on beaches and rocky shores, there is no way getting around it.  Might as well beef it up.

This is normal for me

This picture is my Quick Canoe after a capsize.  Basically, impossible to right and empty solo when in water above one's head without installed buoyancy-- either built in tanks or strapped in bags or foam.  Great way to cool off on a hot day though!